Barbara Simpson is Professor in Leadership and Organisational Dynamics at Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow. Her PhD in Management, from the University of Auckland, marked a sea change from her earlier career as a physics-trained geothermal scientist. Traces of this past do, however, remain evident in her work today, bringing the principles of action, flow, and movement to bear on organisational processes such as creativity, leadership and moral action. She has pursued these interests in diverse empirical settings including hi-tech businesses, professional firms, public utilities, arts companies, health and social care organisations, 3rd sector, SMEs and micro-enterprises. Her thinking is deeply informed by the philosophies of the American Pragmatists, especially George Herbert Mead’s approach to dialogue and temporality. Her work is published in various book chapters and journals including Organization Studies, Human Relations, Organization, Project Management journal, Management Learning, and Management Inquiry. She has also edited three Special Issues (Qualitative Research in Organization and Management, Scandinavian Journal of Management, and Organization Studies), and two anthologies on the topic of process research. She is currently a Senior Editor for Organization Studies.

Key Reference: Simpson, B. & den Hond, F. (2021). “The Contemporary Resonances of Classical Pragmatism for Studying Organization and Organizing”, Org. Studies, 1, 20.​

Paper Presentation by Prof. Trisha Greenhalgh

​Trish Greenhalgh is Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford. She studied Medical, Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge and Clinical Medicine at Oxford before training first as a diabetologist and later as an academic general practitioner. She has a doctorate in diabetes care and an MBA in Higher Education Management. She leads a programme of research at the interface between the social sciences and medicine, working across primary and secondary care.Her work seeks to celebrate and retain the traditional and the humanistic aspects of medicine and healthcare while also embracing the exceptional opportunities of contemporary science and technology to improve health outcomes and relieve suffering. Three particular interests are the health needs and illness narratives of minority and disadvantaged groups; the introduction of technology-based innovations in healthcare; and the complex links (philosophical and empirical) between research, policy and practice.  She has brought this interdisciplinary perspective to bear on the research response to the Covid-19 pandemic, looking at diverse themes including clinical assessment of the deteriorating patient by phone and video, the science and anthropology of face coverings, and policy decision-making in conditions of uncertainty. She is a member of Independent SAGE, an interdisciplinary academic team established to provide independent advice on the pandemic direct to the lay public.

Key Reference: Greenhalgh, T. & Engebretsen, E. (2022). “The science-policy relationship in times of crisis: An urgent call for a pragmatist turn”, Social Science and Medicine, 306.